


Wake Me Up

by tabbytabbytabby



Series: Game of Thrones Season 8 [15]
Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode Fix-it, Episode: s08e05 The Bells, F/M, Happy Ending, Light Angst, Nightmares, Past Cersei Lannister/Jaime Lannister, Season/Series 08
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-14
Updated: 2019-05-14
Packaged: 2020-03-05 15:01:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18831040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tabbytabbytabby/pseuds/tabbytabbytabby
Summary: Jaime can't help but think about how wrong this feels. He shouldn't be here. He should be safe in Winterfell with Brienne. Not about to be crushed under the Red Keep with Cersei.Jaime has a dream that he goes to King's Landing to die with Cersei.





	Wake Me Up

**Author's Note:**

> Yet another fix-it, because it's needed. And I'm still angry and sad about the episode. Which means finding ways to make it not happen.

The walls are crumbling. The world falls around them. There are screams and cries in the air. Cersei is next to him, looking more afraid than he's ever seen her. And there's no way out. They're trapped here in the tunnels below the Red Keep and they're going to die.

Jaime can't help but think about how _wrong_ this feels. He shouldn't be here. He should be safe in Winterfell with Brienne. Not about to be crushed under the Red Keep with Cersei.

This cowering scared creature isn't her. And he's not the man that would easily go running back to her. Knowing he could die. Knowing he was leaving behind the one person who truly sees him and his chance at happiness along with it.

He doesn't want this.

The ceiling continues to fall in on them and Cersei is still crying. And Jaime just wishes he could find a way out of this.

“Jaime!”

Jaime looks around, confused. He has a moment of fear when he realizes it’s Brienne’s voice calling to him. But that’s not right. She can’t be here.

She should still be in Winterfell. He moves away from Cersei, stumbling across the rubble towards Brienne’s voice.

“Brienne!” He can feel himself starting to lose his semblance of control as he searches for her. He has to find her. He knows if he doesn’t he really will die down here. “Gods Brienne, I don’t want to die here. Help me.”

Her voice comes louder now, closer. “Wake up!”

His eyes snap open and he sucks in a breath. Then another. The air still doesn't seem to want to reach his lungs.

Is he dying? Have the walls caved in on him and are now covering his chest?

But no. That doesn't seem right. It's far too warm.

He feels hands on his cheeks and his eyes start to focus. When they meet a familiar pair of blue eyes Jaime goes lax.

“Jaime.” Brienne’s tone is soft and careful, as if she's afraid to spook him.

He rests his forehead against hers and takes a deep breath, for once grateful when the cold winter air fills his lungs.

“I'm alive,” he whispers. “I'm here with you.”

“You are,” Brienne says. She seems to hesitate a moment before speaking again. “Did you think you were someplace else?”

“Hell,” Jaime mutters. “Somewhere I had no business being.” He takes in Brienne's tired eyes and frowns. “I woke you.”

“You scared me,” she replies honestly. “I woke up and heard you screaming. You kept saying you didn't want to die. You asked me to save you.”

“And you did.”

“All I did was wake you up.”

She says it as if that doesn't mean anything. As I'd she hadn't woken him up long ago, showing him the truth of who was and who he could be. It had just needed to happen one last time.

He kisses her softly, keeping their heads together. “I love you.”

It's the first time he's let himself say the words. He's tried to show her any way he could but has never felt brave enough to say them. Until now. He knows if his heart is safe with anyone, it's Brienne.

She smiles, her fingers softly caressing his cheek. “I love you too, Jaime.”

Jaime closes his eyes and lets himself relax in her arms. He doesn’t sleep. Not for a while. He stays up, listening as Brienne’s breathing evens out and she starts to doze.

When news comes a few days later with word of King’s Landing being destroyed and how they found Cersei’s body buried in the rubble Jaime has to suppress a shiver. In another more twisted life he could have been there with her.

Looking over at Brienne, he sees the way she does her best to keep her expression neutral, most likely for his sake. He knows he could never be that man. He could never be someone who left this woman behind and went off to die in King’s Landing.

Jaime doesn’t break. He barely reacts at all. Not until he finds himself alone later. Only then does he let himself mourn for the loss of Cersei. As vile and twisted as she became she was still his sister. His twin. He mourns the woman she could have become if the world hadn’t latched itself on and turned her cold.

Brienne finds him sitting on the edge of their bed with his head in his resting on his knees. She puts an arm around him and runs her hand across his back in an attempt to comfort and calm him. It’s enough to make the tears return.

This is a woman who love him. Who understand him, and his grief.

“It’s okay to mourn her,” she says quietly. “I know you loved her.”

“I couldn’t save her,” Jaime whispers.

“It wasn’t on you to be her savior Jaime,” she tells him. “She made her choices. So have you. Or you have rather died in King’s Landing?”

“Of course not,” Jaime sighs. He sits up so that he can look at her. Her hand shifts but doesn’t leave his back. “I stayed her for a reason, Brienne. For you, and for myself. I couldn’t be that man anymore. The one who always went running back to her.”

“But that doesn’t make it hurt any less,” she says. “I know. Now tell me, what can I do? Do you want to be alone?”

Jaime reaches out and grips her hand tightly, feeling panic rise in him at the thought of being alone. “No. Please. I just… I want you to stay with me.”

Brienne’s face softens as she brings a hand up to brush across his cheek, “I’m not going anywhere.”

Jaime closes his eyes and leans into her touch. The ache is still in his chest. It might always be there. But he knows it will lessen with time. Wounds heal, even the ones that aren’t physical. He knows that as much as anyone.

Now with the war over he has a chance at being happy. At building a new life with Brienne. Something he has no intention of letting go of. He knows he made the right choice staying here with her. If there was ever a choice at all it had been made long ago. Maybe not the first time they met, but the first time he decided to save her.

He lost part of himself that day. Something he was sure he’d never get over. But in the end he’s come out better for it. It helped to chip away at his carefully built walls and allowed him to be the man he always wanted to be.

The man he is now.

Brienne is still watching him carefully. Her unwavering gaze worried. He turns his head and kisses her palm, his eyes never leaving hers. “Thank you.”

“What for?” she asks.

“For knowing who I am and loving me anyway,” Jaime says.

“You’re a good man, Jaime Lannister,” she says. “A man who has done bad things, yes. But one who has changed, and has honor. How I could not love you?”

Jaime kisses her, his lips moving softly against hers. There is no heat or hurry. Not now. There will be other times for that. For now, he just lets himself stay in this moment. He lets himself have the peace and comfort of being alive and in the arms of the woman he loves.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Kudos/Comments make my day. ♥  
> [My tumblr](http://tabbytabbytabby.tumblr.com/)


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